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Today’s Teamster News For September 7, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Call on FedEx Shareholders to Reject Outdated Executive Pay Structure Teamster.org …Yesterday, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters mailed a letter to FedEx Corp. shareholders urging a vote against the board’s “Say on Pay” proposal at the September 26, 2016 annual shareholder meeting. The letter challenges FedEx’s reliance on a two-decade old approach to long-term pay, arguing that it is overly generous and ill-equipped to delivering long-term value in the current environment…
Teamsters slam FedEx executive pay structure Business Journal …The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has come out against the way FedEx Corp. handles executive pay in a letter to the company’s board. The Teamsters letter comes in advance of FedEx’s shareholders meeting, which is scheduled for September 26, and says that FedEx’s approach to long-term executive pay is “overly generous and ill-equipped to delivering long-term value in the current environment”…
Hoffa: Don’t Let GOP Curb New Pro-Worker Rules The Detroit News …The White House and Department of Labor took another step towards improving the lives of workers late last month when they issued final language for a rule that will put stronger protections in place for those employed by federal government contractors. The Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order establishes clear guidelines for federal agencies to implement when reviewing companies for federal contracts…
What the Boss Makes: CEO pay getting more ire from shareholders Silicon Valley …Gray spoke up to contrast lavish executive pay with the low wages and benefits at the McKesson plant in central Florida where he worked. Shareholders applauded his three-minute speech. He also got fired. But after an administrative law judge found the firing unjustified, he returned to the Bay Area again last year to present a Teamsters proposal seeking to block Hammergren and other executives from getting automatic full vesting of all equity awards…
Member Actions Win Incentive Award Pay at UCLA Local 2010 …After a long fight, Teamsters Local 2010 Secretary-Treasurer Jason Rabinowitz and a delegation of UCLA Health leaders met with former CEO Feinberg and current CEO Mazziotta on Monday, August 22, 2016 solidifying the participation of our members in the UCLA inventive bonus programs. “We sent a clear message to UCLA top management, pay discrimination must end now,” said Rabinowitz…
Union Secures Raises, Protects Benefits for F K Ketler Members Local 727 …Teamsters Local 727 representatives have secured a new three-year contract for members at F K Ketler Co. who haul steel to bridges for repair. The agreement includes annual wage increases as well as pension and health and welfare contributions increases by the Bedford, Ill.-based company. The union also protected all other current working conditions and benefits…
Davis Delivers Petition Opposing UC’s Risky Pension Opt Out Local 2010 …UC Davis activists delivered hundreds of signatures opposing the University of California’s recent attack on secure retirements to the office of Acting Chancellor Ralph Hexter on Wednesday, August 31, 2016. Actions have occurred at locations throughout California protesting UC’s risky pension opt out and the poverty wages at UC. “University of California workers deserve the dignity that comes with a guaranteed retirement after a career of service”…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Taiwan: Rail workers threaten strike over hours The China Post …Railway workers have threatened to strike unless the government acts to enforce legal working hours, holidays and overtime pay, warning that current working conditions had already proved fatal. Led by the newly established Taiwan Railway Union, more than 300 workers protested outside the Transportation Ministry Tuesday. They described the rail service as beset by labor disputes and long-term staff shortages…
Indians Staged One of the Largest Strikes in History, But No One on U.S. Cable News Covered It The Intercept …Ten Indian trade unions staged one of the largest strikes in human history on Friday, with tens of millions of public sector workers participating in a shutdown of parts of the Indian economy to protest Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic plans. But if you’re an American relying on cable news, it would be hard to know it ever happened. Not a single American cable news network ran a segment focused on India’s massive strike…
Obama pushes trade in Asia, but has 2016 killed the TPP? CNN …It was their last, best chance at a big, bipartisan deal: President Barack Obama and congressional Republican leaders all agreed on free trade. Just a little more than a year ago, that philosophical alignment looked like enough for Obama’s signature trade deal and centerpiece of his Asian pivot policy — the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership — to clear Congress. Then the 2016 presidential campaign intervened…
Obama pushes Trans-Pacific Partnership in his final months Press Herald …Despite formidable opposition across the political spectrum, President Obama is using his final months in office to fight for congressional approval of a 12-nation free trade pact called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Obama plugged the trade agreement Monday in China, saying it is “indisputable that it would create a better deal for us than the status quo.” A survey by the Pew Research Center estimated that 39 percent of registered voters view TPP as a bad thing…
TTIP is Multinational Companies’ Attempt to Become ‘New Feudal Barons’ (opinion) Sputnik News …While Brussels is in favor of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, member states are opposed, investigative journalist Tony Gosling told Radio Sputnik. ”Brussels itself is very much behind this, but it’s fair to say the individual member states don’t want anything to do with it, because effectively it means their own abolition,” Gosling said…
Worker Rights Violations Rampant in Jaffna, Sri Lanka Solidarity Center …The 2009 end of Sri Lanka’s civil war was an opportunity for workers to return to the security and protections of the formal economy, which had been destabilized by 26 years of violence. However, a new Solidarity Center survey finds that peace has yet to bring the hoped-for economic gains to workers in Jaffna, the capital of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province…
Saudis tighten their belts for Eid in age of austerity Reuters …Low oil prices are forcing the government of the world’s top oil exporter into spending cuts to curb a budget deficit that totaled a record $98 billion last year. Those cuts, which began late in 2015, are now rippling through almost every area of the Saudi economy, reducing consumers’ disposable income and weighing on the living standards of ordinary Saudis…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Report: Minimum wage hike helped state’s lowest-paid workers Boston Herald …Massachusetts’ lowest-paid workers saw their hourly compensation rise by more than 7 percent last year following a hike in the state’s minimum wage, according to a report released on Labor Day. A 2014 law raised the minimum wage from $8 an hour to $9 an hour on Jan. 1, 2015. Under the law, the minimum wage subsequently moved up to $10 an hour on Jan. 1 of this year and is scheduled to rise to a U.S.-leading $11 an hour at the beginning of next year…
NJ Democrats begin Christie end-run on minimum wage My Central Jersey …Democratic state lawmakers are fast-tracking a bid to have voters next year decide whether the minimum wage should be increased to $10.10 per hour, over Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s objections — with additional hikes to be phased in over a four-year period. A resolution proposing a constitutional amendment has been scheduled for a public hearing Thursday by Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester…
State House Representatives attend hearings to raise the minimum wage WFMZ …Democratic members of the Pennsylvania house of representatives from all corners of the commonwealth converged on Allentown’s city hall Tuesday afternoon to hear reasons for supporting a raise in the state minimum wage from the current $7.25 per hour up to $15 per hour … or some dollar amount in between. State Rep. Peter Schweyer (D-22) of Allentown called the Policy Committee hearing…
Bill to shield retired miners divides coal-state Republicans AP …An election-year bill to fulfill a 70-year-old government promise and protect health-care and pension benefits for retired miners is dividing coal-state Republicans, pitting endangered incumbents against GOP leaders wary of bailing out union workers. Retirement and health-care funds currently support about 120,000 former miners and their families nationwide…
For many working minimum wage, the ends never meet Philly.com …As the national debate intensifies over whether the minimum wage should more than double to $15 an hour, states, cities and counties are implementing a hodgepodge of wages. That leaves the country’s lowest-paid employees facing different circumstances depending on where they live. And nowhere is that disjointed reality more stark than in the Washington region…
U.S. LABOR
Striking nurses call on Allina to return to bargaining table Workday Minnesota …One day into their open-ended strike, members of the Minnesota Nurses Association called on Allina Health to return to the bargaining table and “bring experienced nurses back to the bedside.” MNA leaders held a news conference Monday across from Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, one of five Allina sites being picketed. Allina has not responded to the nurses’ last offer, submitted at 5:15 a.m. Saturday, the union said…
Nearly 1,000 Gas Workers Union Members Affected By Dominion Lockout CBS …A lockout at Dominion went into effect Tuesday night. The company is based in Virginia, but supplies natural gas to parts of West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. They also have workers in Allegheny, Westmoreland and other surrounding counties. According to the United Gas Workers Union Local 69 Facebook page, nearly 1,000 workers have been locked out of their jobs…
SEIU Local 1 beefs about ‘rampant wage theft’ at O’Hare Chicago Sun Times …On Wednesday, SEIU Local 1 and its City Council allies will hold a news conference to demand that the Illinois Department of Labor and the Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection investigate “rampant wage theft” from hundreds of airport employees who draw their paychecks from private contractors…
HUDS Workers Prepare to Strike Harvard Crimson …Harvard University Dining workers are preparing to go on strike after three months of stagnant contract negotiations with the University’s bargaining team on issues of health benefits and wage increases. Spokesperson for Local 26—the union that represents HUDS—Tiffany Ten Eyck wrote in a press release Tuesday that the workers’ contract with Harvard is set to expire on Sept. 17…
Women, Southerners Most Likely to Earn Minimum Wage US News & World Report …Those in the retail trade and leisure and hospitality industries account for a much larger percentage of America’s overall workers, but make significantly less. Average hourly earnings of those in retail sat at $17.92 in August, while leisure and hospitality workers brought in just $14.39 per hour. These workers collectively account for nearly 70 percent of the country’s lowest-wage earners…
The Geography of U.S. Inequality New York Times …While we’ve seen many reports on the income growth for the richest 1 percent of Americans, most prominently through the academic work of Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, much less has been written about the dynamics of the bottom 99 percent. Using data from the Census Bureau, we’ve created our own charts for all adults for each state and for the country as a whole between 1990 and 2014…
Pregnant Women Are Critical Employees So Let’s Treat Them That Way (opinion) TIME …Women have never been a bigger part of the workforce than at this time in history. Women are not only the primary caregivers in the majority of households, but we are also the sole or primary breadwinners in a record 40% of households with children. In 2016, our ability to work while simultaneously raising a family is more relevant, and more important, than ever…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
With Koch Brothers Academy, Conservatives Settle In for Long War New York Times …If the Koch brothers have lost the battle for conservative values in 2016, they are also quietly preparing for a long war. Their secret weapon is the Grassroots Leadership Academy: a training program dreamed up by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the political education arm of the Koch network, and intended to groom the next generation of conservative activists to shape the future of the Republican Party…
Yes, the Flint water crisis is still going on and Congress must act The Hill …The city’s drinking water first became contaminated with lead after the state of Michigan switched the water source to save money. And although people in the community complained for months about what they knew to be unsafe water, they were continuously assured there was nothing to worry about. Now we know that the administration of Gov. Rick Snyder hid the hazardous levels of lead. Water in people’s homes still requires filtering to drink. And we are only beginning to fully understand the long-term impact…
Woody Guthrie whacks ‘Old Man Trump’ again in another recently discovered song Raw Story …Yet another broadside fired at Donald Trump’s father, the discovery comes on the heels of a recent in-depth New York Times article that details the “long history of racial bias” at the properties developed and owned by Trump Management. ‘Trump made a tramp out of me’ Like so many memorable folk songs, Guthrie’s seven-verse diatribe is unashamedly simple, repetitive and formulaic…